1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an ink-jet device, more particularly, for producing an image on a recording medium, including a droplet-producing device for ejecting droplets along a trajectory, and a droplet-controlling device for controlling the trajectory of the droplets.
2. Description of the Related Art
An ink-jet device of the foregoing general type has become known heretofore from published European patent document 0 223 375 B1. The device described therein includes a droplet-production device for ejecting droplets along a trajectory. On their way to a recording medium, the droplets pass a droplet-controlling device in the form of an electrode arrangement. Situated between the electrode arrangement and the droplet-producing device is a charging device, which applies an electric charge to the droplets as they move along their trajectory. When the electrically charged droplets pass the aforementioned electrode arrangement, it is possible to alter their trajectory due to the application of a corresponding voltage to the electrode arrangement. A result thereof is that the droplets either are caused to impact on the recording medium or, alternatively, are conducted to a droplet-collecting devices and, after having been collected thereat, are returned to a reservoir. The thus recovered ink is then available once again to be resupplied to the droplet-production device. The size of the droplets, i.e., the ink volume thereof, and thus the magnitude of the inking occurring on the recording medium, is dependent upon the construction of the droplet-producing device, which conveys a "chain of droplets", the individual droplets of which, respectively, have a constant volume. It is disadvantageous that, therefore, only a small number of ink shades or color gradations is available and that only a relatively coarse resolution can be achieved.